1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to amusement devices of the target game type and, more particularly, to a target which portrays the caricature of a person and has a movable portion spaced from the bull's-eye which is totally dislodged to humorously indicate the scoring of a direct hit.
2. The Prior Art
Amusement apparatus involving comic targets with a visual or audio indicator of a marksman's skill and having some similarity to the present invention are known in the prior art. Perhaps the most similar is revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,120,265, issued to O. J. Boyt. This patent discloses a comic, portly figure having three dimensions, like a doll, and whose target is a button in the front of its fat stomach. The button abuts a spring pressed plunger movable horizontally and whose other end abuts a bell crank arm. A second, vertically movable plunger is liftable by the second arm of the bell crank to turn the head and face of the target figure rearwardly about a hinge when the target button is struck by a ball or other missile. The present invention differs considerably in structure from the described prior art device. Firstly, all the parts are of simpler and less expensive construction, the target figure being printed or pasted on a two-dimensional flat sheet instead of being three dimensional and, secondly, the trigger apparatus comprises a pivoted straight lever parallel to the flat sheet instead of an assembly of a bell crank with two plungers, plunger guide and a target button. Thirdly, the hairpiece of the present invention is a flat, two dimensional part which is totally dislodged from the target figure when the bull's-eye is struck instead of being a three dimensional head which is merely turned on a hinge. The magnetic structure for holding the hairpiece on the target is also novel.
The U.S. Pat. No. 1,170,828 issued to S. R. Lamb is similar to the present invention in the use of a flat, planar target face whose open mouth forms the target area. In this patent, spring loaded teeth in the mouth disappear from sight when struck by a ball. However, the teeth are retained in pockets behind the target face when struck and are not totally dislodged from the target, nor is there any teaching of holding the teeth magnetically or of using a pivoted lever to dislodge them.
The U.S. Pat. No. 2,074,009 issued to J. Wunner discloses a target face with eyes, nose and chin buttons as specific targets. A very complex mechanism, including pivotal elements, is employed to elevate, turn and lower eye covering discs and to elevate a flag when the buttons are struck. This patent does not teach the use of a magnetically held, dislodgeable element which is completely removed from the target face by a simple pivoted bar when the bull's-eye is struck as in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,926,916 and 1,217,714 granted to C. Pearson, Jr. and C. H. Cox respectively, also disclose target devices having moving parts together with audio indicators as well, to signal an accurate hit. These disclosed structures are considerably more complex than and have fewer similar ties to the present invention than the patents discussed above.